Brewbound Podcast

A new year means it’s Brewbound’s annual roundtable conversation with our peers in beer industry journalism. This year, the Brewbound team is joined by Kate Bernot, lead analyst for Feel Goods Insights, and David Steinman, VP and executive editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights. The discussion covers the biggest bev-alc news stories of 2025, including middle-tier consolidation, overall category health and consumer sentiment. Although full-year scan data has yet to arrive, the beer category is poised to finish 2025 with low- to moderate-single-digit declines in dollar sales and volume, if the trends of the first 11 months hold. “We’re looking at decline after decline after decline – it’s something like 30 million barrels down from our recent peak,” Steinman said, adding that “some of that was inflated from the pandemic gains.” “It felt like it was going to normalize at least multiple times over, and it just keeps on declining at this rate,” he continued. “It’s hard to really put a finger on exactly one thing, but it’s easy to look at the broad-brush of impacts on the trends, and it’s just a tougher business now than it really ever has been for a consistent stretch.” The usual suspects of health and wellness trends, Gen Zs’ alleged broad aversion to alcohol and the rise of intoxicating hemp dominate conversations elsewhere, but Bernot posited that there’s something bigger at play. “The story that maybe went under-discussed for me last year was the broader macroeconomic factors going on in the U.S. and the pressure on the average consumer and how that fits into the choices people are making,” she said. “We hear so much about health. We hear so much about cannabis, THC, etc, competing categories. “I just didn’t hear enough about how pressured the average U.S. consumer feels,” Bernot continued. “We’ve known for a long time that well-off Americans are carrying a lot of water for the U.S. economy, but they can’t do it forever, and especially not in general CPG. You can only go out to a restaurant so many times. You only need so many cases of beer if you’re a wealthy family.” In addition to high-level impacts on the beer business, the conversation also explored granular topics, such as the rise of Guinness in the on-premise, seismic shifts in California distribution and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s growing strength in beyond beer. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

Earlier this year, wine industry veteran Jason McConnell acquired 38-year-old Anderson Valley Brewing Company [AVBC] (Boonville, CA). Now he is focused on maintaining AVBC’s cherished traditions, such as its annual fest and its celebrated disc golf course, while adding his own flair. McConnell chatted with Brewbound editor Justin Kendall during the California Craft Beer Summit in November about AVBC’s beer park and several new Japanese-inspired offerings, as well as his observations as a newcomer to craft beer. “The beer world is a lot more laid back and a lot more fun to promote than the wine world,” McConnell said. “It’s different, and it’s awesome.” Before the interview, senior reporter Zoe Licata and managing editor Jessica Infante discuss Brewbound’s most-read news stories of 2025, as well as recent headlines, including Stateside’s new Super Lyte and data about consumers’ plans for New Year’s Eve and Dry January. Listen here or wherever you prefer to pod.

Brewbound Live 2025 is in the books! Podcast co-hosts Zoe Licata and Jessica Infante recap this year’s conference. Then, Karl Strauss Brewing (San Diego, CA) co-founder and CEO Chris Cramer joins Brewbound editor Justin Kendall for this week’s featured interview. The conversation was recorded at the California Craft Beer Summit last month in Irvine, CA, hosted by the California Craft Brewers Association. Cramer brought his signature sunny disposition to the chat, and discussed Karl Strauss’s current trends, brewpub traffic and long-running partnership with Disneyland’s California Adventure. “In general, our industry seems to be outperforming the rest of beverage-alcohol, which is not part of the current narrative,” Cramer said. “For each of us as craft brewers here in this state, our greatest opportunity is looking into ourselves and seeing what we can authentically own as a brand and communicating that to our consumers and our fans and then helping them share that joy with others.” He urged California craft brewers to take pride in the significance they have in the state’s culture and economy, which is a cornerstone for the nation’s craft brewing industry. Before the interview, Zoe and Jess highlight panel discussions they moderated during Brewbound Live, including a conversation about the bev-alc segments still drawing interest from the investment community. They also discuss recent beer industry news, including Anheuser-Busch InBev’s plan to sell one brewery and close two more, November Circana off-premise data and the North Carolina community’s reaction to the arrest of Sycamore Brewing’s co-founder. Programming note: the Brewbound Podcast will not publish an episode on December 24, but will return on December 31. Listen to the episode here or on your preferred podcast platform:

Pizza Port wants to be a staple of your Southern California grocery run. “I call it the Southern California grocery basket,” Pizza Port director of sales Jill Olesh said on the latest episode of the Brewbound Podcast. “It’s your chicken, your tortillas, your black beans, your spinach and your 6-pack of Swami’s [IPA].” Pizza Port is riding a wave of momentum as the 38th-largest craft brewery by volume in 2024, growing 9% to 53,450 barrels of beer. Olesh credited the connection the brewery has forged across generations, as well as the value of the brewery’s flagship 16 oz. can 6-pack format, which the company launched in 2013. “Part of the magic recipe, the lightning in the bottle of Pizza Port, is we’ve been so many things to so many people throughout their lives and a lot of those people who were coming as kids are now bringing their kids here,” she said. In the conversation, Olesh discussed the pillars of Pizza Port’s sales pitch – “consistency, quality, affordability, availability” – as well as the mindset that carried her through the recent SoCal distributor consolidation as Hand Family Companies bought and merged Stone Distributing, Classic Beverage and Scout Distributing into Sunset Distributing earlier this year and why she’s optimistic for 2026. Plus, hear the real-time reactions from the Brewbound team on Anheuser-Busch InBev’s $490 million deal for 85% of party punch maker BeatBox, as well as quick recaps on a proposed class-action lawsuit against Boston Beer and how the night before Thanksgiving busted this year. Justin, Jess and Zoe also share their Spotify Wrapped results, with some surprising – and not-so-surprising – results. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

The Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur’s current tagline is “We’re surviving, not thriving.” “We’d love to turn that into thriving,” he added on the latest episode of the Brewbound Podcast. “We’re trying to get to next year. That’s the standard answer,” Arthur explained. “Next year will be our 20th year in business. So it’s a pretty big milestone in terms of continuity or continuation. So [we’re] definitely looking forward. What we’re trying to do is really establish the right size and scale for the brewery.” For the Lost Abbey, that’s led to a bit of a nomadic lifestyle over the last couple of years, moving from San Marcos to the Mother Earth Brewing facility in Vista and now to the former Eppig Brewing 30-barrel brewery space about a mile across town. Arthur described those moves as a search for efficiency that hasn’t yet fully been realized, reinforcing the business with contract partners with room to add more. In the interview, Arthur shared his view of The Lost Abbey’s business moves in an effort to “grow down,” while also hitting on a major challenge facing California brewers coming up on the expiration of their leases as landlords seek market rate increases in rent. Arthur shared his own experience of deciding whether a 30% rent increase was worth accepting at the brewery’s best-performing tasting room. Before the interview, Jess, Zoe and Justin break down Rogue Ales & Spirits’ bankruptcy filing and Torch & Crown’s SoHo taproom closure. They also share one thing they’re looking forward to at Brewbound Live next week. Listen here or on your preferred podcasting platform.

Smog City Brewing co-founder Laurie Porter is a prepper. Even during craft’s days of double-digit growth in the middle 2010s, Porter, who calls herself “an incurable optimist,” was eyeing a future when that growth wouldn’t be there. So Porter and her husband, Jonathan Porter, built Torrence, California-based Smog City with diversified revenue streams – distribution, exports to international markets, four taprooms with over-the-bar sales and an intentional cap on production around 10,000 barrels – that allow the company to shore up its business if things go sideways. “At our level, between the 5,000 and 12,000, 13,000 barrel, a lot of our revenue is built off the taproom, direct-to-consumer, which has a little bit higher profit margin, it helps us float that wholesale,” Porter says in the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast, recorded on location at the California Craft Beer Summit. “So if wholesale is struggling or we’re seeing dips and changes in seasons and customer changes, we have a little bit more buffer.” Porter admits that Smog City has looked at what life would be like as a 15,000-barrel brewery but has been “apprehensive to break that” ceiling due to the loss of the ability to pivot, flex and manage costs. “When you hit 15,000 barrels, you are playing so deep in the chain world because it’s all about volume,” she explained. “Chain can be very fickle. It can be really difficult to maintain. A beer buyer changes and boom, you’re off the shelf. And that’s now, whatever, 450 barrels of beer for that one style of beer that you had committed to that grocery, and it’s gone. And you can’t just predict it.” In the interview, Porter discusses the pressures on LA locations, consumers heading back into taprooms, the impending closure of its Steelcraft Long Beach facility after a decade due to being unable to extend the lease and the launch of a new restaurant concept in December to replace it. Before the interview, Jess, Zoe and Justin cover the latest news, including the Siebel Institute of Technology’s planned exit from Chicago and move to Montreal; Athletic Brewing’s big 2025 and new products coming in 2026; and a Gen Z take on the rumored Anheuser-Busch InBev acquisition of BeatBox. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.

Nearly a year on the job, new-ish Lagunitas CEO Bernardo Spielmann is seeing opportunities for the legacy California craft beer brand. Those opportunities include expanding Lagunitas Hazy IPA from a draft-only release to package, building on the successful launch of 9% ABV Hazicus Maximus hazy IPA, which now boasts 20,000 points of distribution, and revamping the packaging for non-alcoholic hop water Hoppy Refresher. On the latest edition of the Brewbound Podcast, Spielmann shares that it’s also about listening to consumers, who demanded the return of seasonal Unrefined Shugga’, the 10% ABV strong ale that returned this year as a national play in bottles and club packs. Spielmann tells Brewbound managing editor Jess Infante that the goal is to see what resonates and respond quickly. “More and more as the craft segment matures, we’re going to have to be sharper per channel, per market, per SKU how you want to build your proposition,” he said. “There will be a rationalization and that’s the expected approach. We need to facilitate that for retailers but also our distributors. It’s also part of our strategy to be very sharp on how we launch or roll out innovations and the tradeoffs.” Spielmann also discusses the beer category’s need to bring back socializing and capture those occasions. He explains how Lagunitas is doing its part with its “Party Legend” brand activation, which celebrates consumers who are the life of the party. But first, Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and managing editor Jess Infante discuss the sudden closure of Rogue Ales & Spirits and why the shuttering of a top 50 craft brewery is jarring for the public and industry. They also dig into the rumored sale talks of party punch maker BeatBox to Anheuser-Busch InBev. Jess and Justin also share their experiences, including a visit to Tree House’s country club/golf course/taproom and the scuttlebutt from the California Craft Brewers Association’s Summit and the Iowa Craft Brewers Guild’s I-Best meeting. Listen here or on your preferred podcast platform.